The present invention relates to apparatus for manipulating disc films, and more particularly to improvements in apparatus for transporting exposed and developed disc films in copying machines. Still more particularly, the invention relates to improvements in automatic apparatus for the transport of exposed and developed disc films through a copying machine wherein selected frames or all frames of some or all of the films are imaged onto photographic paper or the like.
A disc film comprises a relatively sturdy hub with a central aperture and an annulus of normally fifteen film frames around the hub. In heretofore known apparatus for transporting exposed and developed disc films through a copying machine, successive disc films are transferred from a magazine onto a turntable which transports the films to several successive treating stations one of which is the copying or printing station, and thereupon to a second magazine wherein the films are stored in the form of stacks or the like. The film which arrives at the copying station must be rotated about its axis in order to move successive or selected frames into register with the copying window of the machine. The turntable is indexible through angles of 45 degrees and carries eight equidistant holders for discrete disc films. Each such holder comprises a pivotable flap with a tiltable dish-shaped support. The turntable transports successive holders for disc films to and thereupon beyond eight successive stations including two loading or charging stations, a decoding station, a scanning station, a copying station, an intermediate station, and two removing stations. The two loading or charging stations accommodate a first magazine (e.g., in the form of a twin cylinder) which contains one or more stacks of exposed and developed disc films and from which such films are removed for transfer onto the turntable, namely, onto pairs of neighboring holders on the turntable. The two removing stations accommodate a similar magazine which receives films from the oncoming holders on the turntable and accumulates such films in the form of one or more stacks.
A drawback of the just described conventional apparatus is that the transfer of disc films onto and/or the removal of disc films from the turntable invariably involves at least some vibratory and/or other stray movements which are transmitted to the aforementioned flaps and thence to the respective disc films. Such stray movements of disc films at the scanning and/or copying station can adversely influence the quality (particularly the sharpness) of prints. While it is conceivable to maintain the turntable at a standstill while a disc film is located at the copying station, i.e., to load films onto and to remove films from the turntable during the intervals between the making of prints from successive disc films, this would practically double the interval which elapses while a disc film is on its way from the first to the second magazines.
Moreover, the just described conventional apparatus cannot be installed in many existing copying machines without extensive alterations of such machines. The main reason for the need for such extensive alterations, before the conventional apparatus can be installed in a number of presently known copying machines, is that the printing paper must be transported in a direction radially of the disc film at the copying station. This creates problems in connection with the installation of optical elements at the copying station as well as in connection with the advancement of printing paper through the copying station.